A user equipment (UE) may be configured to establish a connection to at least one of a plurality of different networks or types of networks as well as with other UEs to perform a variety of different functionalities via the connection. For example, the UE may connect to a first type of network (e.g., a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network) to communicate with another UE through the network connection (e.g., a user of the UE may perform a voice call or transmit a text to another user of another UE). In another example, the UE may connect to a second type of network (e.g., a WiFi network) to receive browser data at a higher rate of data exchange. In a further example, the UE may directly connect to a further UE using a short-range communication protocol (e.g., BlueTooth). When using this short-range communication protocol, the two UEs may be in a companion relationship where one of the UEs is a companion UE and the other one of the UEs is an accessory UE. While connected to one another, the accessory UE may be connected to one or more networks via the companion UE. However, when not connected to each other, each UE may also be configured to independently connect to one or more networks.
When the accessory UE is not connected to the companion UE, the accessory UE may perform a plurality of initialization operations. For example, the accessory UE may perform network association operations and initialize network capabilities for applications that are executed on the accessory UE. However, the accessory UE may not have information upon which to determine a level of the network capabilities. By being blind when going to a standalone mode, the accessory UE may not have, for example, an initial link quality metric (LQM) value used to determine radio conditions. Using an arbitrary default LQM value (e.g., a medium radio condition) while the accessory UE is experiencing poor radio conditions, the accessory UE may allow the applications to attempt to exchange data with the network which may result in increased power usage and a poor user experience. However, using a default LQM value corresponding to poor radio conditions when the accessory UE may actually have better radio conditions may prevent the applications from attempting to exchange data with the network which may create delays and result in a poor user experience.